Books of Yiddish Sayings — in Yiddish only

authortitletitle translationpublisher & notes
Ignatz Bernstein
איגנץ בערנשטיין
Yidishe Shprikhverter un Redensartn
יידישע שפּריכווערטער און רעדענסרטען
Jewish/Yiddish Proverbs and Sayings (New York: Brider Kaminski, 19--) First published in Warsaw in 1908.
Available online at Yiddish Book Center Digital Library
Nahum Stutchkoff
נחום סטוטשקאָוו
Der Oytser fun der Yidisher Shprakh
דער אוצר פֿון דער ייִדישער שפּראַך
Thesaurus of the Yiddish Language (New York: YIVO, 1991) First published in 1950.
Contains words, phrases, idioms and sayings (read more).
Available online at Yiddish Book Center Digital Library.
Search the Oytser online (YIVO transliteration only).
Israel Furman
ישראל פורמאַן
Yidishe Shprikhverter un Rednsartn
ייִדישע שפּריכווערטער און רעדנסאַרטן
Jewish/Yiddish Proverbs and Sayings (Tel-Aviv: Hamenora Publishing House, 1968)
Collected in Romania – Bessarabia, Bukovina, Moldova and Transylvania.
Sholom Katz
שלום כּ״ץ
Fun Folks Moyl
פון פאלקס מויל
From the Mouths of Folk (Toronto: Morris Printing Co., 1940)
Available online at Yiddish Book Center Digital Library
Israel Kaplan
ישראל קאַפּלאַן
Fun Folksmoyl un Mayns
פון פאלקסמויל און מײַנס
Jewish Folklore and My Own (Tel-Aviv: Leyvik Farlag, 2003)
Leybl Murik
לייבל מוריק
Yidishe Khokhme
ייִדישע חכמה
Jewish/Yiddish Wit (Tel-Aviv: Moshe Chmiel Printing Press, 1984)
Includes jokes, figures of speech, folk sayings.
Available online at Yiddish Book Center Digital Library
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Books of Yiddish Sayings in German & Yiddish

authortitletitle translationpublisher & notes
Ignaz Bernstein
איגנאַץ בערנשטיין
Jüdische Sprichwörter und Redensarten
ייִדישע שפּריכווערטער און רעדענסאַרטען
Jewish Proverbs and Sayings (Wiesbaden: Fourier Verlag, 1988)
First published in 1908. This later edition includes Erotica und Rustica,which Bernstein originally published separately.
Ingeborg-Liane Schack Der Mensch tracht un Got lacht:
450 jiddische Sprichwörter
Man plans and God laughs:
450 Yiddish proverbs
(Mainz: Verlag Dr. Hanns Krach, 1977)
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Books of Yiddish Sayings in English & Yiddish

authortitlepublisher & notes
Hanan J. Ayalti Yiddish Proverbs:
The Essence of Yiddish Wit and Wisdom
(New York: Schocken Books, 1949)
Shirley Kumove Words Like Arrows:
A Treasury of Yiddish Folk Sayings
(New York: Warner Books, 1986)
Shirley Kumove More Words, More Arrows:
A Further Collection of Yiddish Folk Sayings
(Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1999)
Yosef Guri Let's Hear Only Good News:
Yiddish Blessings and Curses
(Jerusalem: Hebrew University Magnes Press, 2004)
Parallel blessings and "colloquial maledictions" in Yiddish, Hebrew, English, Russian.
Yosef Guri On the Tip of the Tongue:
500 Yiddish Proverbs
(Jerusalem: Hebrew University Magnes Press, 2006)
Parallel proverbs in Yiddish, Hebrew, English, Russian.
Abraham Lebanon Colored Pearls / Perles Colorées (Jerusalem: Rivlin Publishers, 1996)
Yiddish Proverbs translated into Hebrew, English, French.
G. Weltman & M.S. Zuckerman Yiddish Sayings Mama Never Taught You (Van Nuys, California: Perivale Press, 1975)
English translation and transliteration of "coarse and erotic" sayings collected and published by Ignaz Bernstein in 1908 as Erotica und Rustica. Bernstein chose not to include these sayings in Jüdische Sprichwörter und Redensarten, but later editions include both works.
Fred Kogos 1001 Yiddish Proverbs (New York: Citadel Press, 1970)
Rachel Rosmarin Mamma Used to Say:
Pearls of Wisdom from the World of Yiddish
(Jerusalem & New York: Feldheim Publishers, 2000)
Originally published in Hebrew as Peninim mi-Beis Ima (Feldheim Publishers, 1997).
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Books about Yiddish that Include Sayings

authortitlepublisher & notes
Maurice Samuel In Praise of Yiddish (New York: Cowles Book Co., 1971)
Benjamin Harshav The Meaning of Yiddish (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990)
Lillian Mermin Feinsilver The Taste of Yiddish (New York: A.S. Barnes & Co., 1980)
Payson R. Stevens, Charles M. Levine, Sol Steinmetz Meshuggenary: Celebrating the World of Yiddish (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2002)
Fred Kogos A Dictionary of Yiddish Slang & Idioms (New York: Citadel Press, 1966)
James A. Matisoff Blessings, Curses, Hopes, and Fears (Philadelphia: Institute for the Study of Human Issues, 1979)
Michael Wex Born to Kvetch (New York: St. Martin's Press, 2005)
Includes a chapter on Yiddish curses.
Herman Galvin & Stan Tamarkin The Yiddish Dictionary Sourcebook (Hoboken: Ktav Publishing House, 1986)
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Yiddish Dictionaries

authortitlepublisher & notes
Solon Beinfeld & Harry Bochner (eds.) Comprehensive Yiddish-English Dictionary
אַרומנעמיק ייִדיש–ענגליש ווערטערבוך
(online version, registration required)
(Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2013)
Based on Dictionnaire Yiddish-Français [below]. Online version includes Yiddish-English and Yiddish-French lookup.
Yitskhok Niborski &
Bernard Vaisbrot
Dictionnaire Yiddish-Français
ייִדיש–פֿראַנצייזיש ווערטערבוך
(Paris: Bibliothèque Medem, 2011)
Alexander Harkavy Yiddish-English-Hebrew Dictionary
ייִדיש–ענגליש–העברעאישער ווערטערבוך
(Harkavy's dictionary online)
(New Haven & London: Yale University Press with YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, 2006).
Uriel Weinreich Modern English-Yiddish Yiddish-English Dictionary
מאָדערן ענגליש–ייִדיש ייִדיש–ענגליש ווערטערבוך
(New York: Shocken, 1977)
Yitskhok Niborski &
Simon Neuberg
Verterbukh fun loshn-koydesh-shtamike verter in yidish
ווערטערבוך פֿון לשון–קודש–שטאַמיקע ווערטער אין ייִדיש
Dictionnaire des mots d'origine hébraïque et araméenne en usage dans la langue yiddish
(Paris: Bibliothèque Medem, 1997)
Dictionary of Yiddish words of Hebrew and Aramaic origin. In Yiddish only.
Steven A. Jacobson A Guide to the More Common Hebraic Words in Yiddish (Fairbanks, Alaska, 1993)
Judah A. Joffe & Yudel Mark Groyser verterbukh fun der Yidisher shprakh
גרויסער ווערטערבוך פֿון דער ייִדישער שפּראַך
(searchable online using Yiddish letters – notes)
(New York: Yiddish Dictionary Committee, 1961)
In Yiddish only. Incomplete. Four volumes comprise words beginning with א only. Available online:  Vol I (א–אום); Vol II (ּאום–אײַנב); Vol III (אײַנבּי–אָפּבּוי); Vol IV (אָפּבּוי–אתרוג).
Gitl Schaechter-Viswanath
& Paul Glasser (eds.)
Comprehensive English-Yiddish Dictionary
(online version, registration required)
(Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2016)
Based on the lexical research of Mordkhe Schaechter.
Raphael A. Finkel Yiddish Dictionary Lookup Search for a word or phrase or fragment. Input in Yiddish (Hebrew letters or YIVO transliteration) or in English.
A Yiddish Cultural Dictionary for the 21st Century An English-Yiddish dictionary, work in progress in Vilnius, Lithuania
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Yiddish Sayings on the Web

One can find many Yiddish sayings on the Web, but the majority are presented in English only. Included here are websites that supply the text in Yiddish, at least in transliteration.

Yiddish Wit. See List (text only) or Gallery (with illustrations & notes)

A Selection of Curses from Nahum Stutchkoff's Thesaurus of the Yiddish Language (Yiddish Radio Project)

Yiddish Proverbs, Sayings, etc. in St. Louis, MO by Leah Rachel Yoffie, published in 1919 in the Journal of American Folk-Lore (JSTOR) [download PDF]

My Grandfather's Yiddish Sayings (Morgan Friedman)

Yiddish Proverbs adapted from Hanan J. Ayalti, Yiddish Proverbs (New York: Schocken Books, 1949)

Yiddish Proverbs (Wikiquote)

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A Sampling of Yiddish Links

Yiddish Language and Culture, an overview on the Judaism 101 website.

YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, the world's preeminent resource center for East European Jewish Studies; Yiddish language, literature and folklore; and the American Jewish immigrant experience. (See YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe articles on Yiddish proverbs and folklorist Ignatz Bernstein).

International Yiddish Center of the World Jewish Congress, with cultural and educational resources in English, Yiddish, Hebrew, and Russian.

Yiddish Research Bibliography and Guide, the New York Public Library's extensive list of Yiddish resources.

Yiddish Poetry, a growing collection with fine translations in several languages.

Yidlid, a collection of Yiddish songs with lyrics in Yiddish (Hebrew letters and YIVO transliteration), French and English. Also provided for each song are the melody, a glossary, and links to audio.

YIVO Sound Archive of over 15,000 music and spoken word recordings.

Wexler Oral History Project of the Yiddish Book Center. Among their 600-plus oral history interviews are more than 100 conducted in Yiddish.

Yiddish Radio Project, NPR's collection of recordings from the golden age of Yiddish radio. (See their online exhibit on Nahum Stutchkoff.)

The Yiddish Voice, a weekly Yiddish-language radio show, based in Boston. Listen live on Wednesdays at 7:30 p.m. Boston time, or via podcast.

Lithuanian Yiddish Video Archive, footage of native living Lithuanian (Litvish/Litvak/Northeastern) Yiddish speakers, taped from 1990 to 2022. Project of Dovid Katz.

Yiddish Forward, Yiddish newspaper published since 1897, online in Yiddish and English.

Yiddishkayt, a Yiddish cultural and educational center in Los Angeles.

California Institute for Yiddish Culture and Language, dedicated to preserving the living roots of Yiddish.

Yung YiDiSH, a organization in Israel devoted to preserving and transmitting Yiddish culture and encouraging contemporary Yiddish creativity.

Yugntruf, a youth organization devoted to keeping Yiddish alive.

Workmen's Circle / Arbeter Ring, an organization dedicated to the Jewish Community, Jewish/Yiddish Culture, and Social Justice.

Yiddish Word of the Week, "spreading the love for Mame-Loshn, one vort at a time."

Der Bay, Bridge to Worldwide Yiddish.

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